Is baiting essential to management of bears in Maine, and how prevalent is baiting of bears in the U.S.?
Based on our current knowledge and professional judgment, the loss of baiting will limit our ability to meet the population management goals and objectives for black bears — the extent of this limitation will not be fully known until after the fact. The Department population objective for bears is to “Stabilize the bear population by 2005 at no less than current (1999) levels, through annual hunting and trapping harvests.” We estimate that the population has increased since 1999, and that an annual harvest of between 3,500 and 4,000 bears is required to reach the population objective. In 2002, 76.4% of the bear harvest was attributed to hunters hunting over bait. In the last 4 years (1999 – 2002), an average of 2,895 bears were taken over bait annually, which was 78.0% of the total average annual harvest (see attached table). The number of bears killed by bait hunters, dog hunters, and trappers averages 3,337 (1999 2002). This harvest level may be difficult to achieve by other methods
